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Exclusive: The Hipster Grifter Responds To The ESPN Con Artist

If you haven’t yet read Deadspin’s fascinating exposé on ESPN columnist and probable con woman Sarah J. Phillips, here’s the gist: Sarah was a random commentator on a sports betting site who got plucked from obscurity and given a column on ESPN.com. Seemingly within minutes, she managed to use her prominent position (and attractive image) to lure people into handing over the passwords of well-trafficked Twitter and Facebook accounts, and into sending her cash for nonexistent ad buys.

To get to the bottom of this 21st-century spin on a classic con, I called up (or, more accurately, IMed) one of the modern era’s best-known con woman: Kari Ferrell, better known as “The Hipster Grifter”, and a woman who was once the subject of wall-to-wall coverage on Deadspin sister site Gawker before inspiring an episode of Law & Order. Like Sarah, Kari was in her early 20s when she got in trouble (she has since served time in jail, and is now a seemingly upstanding member of society who I [disclaimer alert!] consider a friend), and so I thought she might be able to offer unique insight into what went wrong for Sarah, and what she should do next to move past this whole mess. (Excuse the grammatical errors that follow, as this is a transcript of an IM conversation).

me: So, are you all caught up on the SPJ [Sarah P. Phillips] saga?

Kari: Yeah, I believe so. Haven’t checked on it for a few hours.

Kari: So now she’s in denial. God, people care about this sh*t way too much.

me: i can see that

Kari: I’m bored with it already. The first story was good. But it’s boring.

me: so if SJP really is a 22-year-old girl, what’s she do next to get her life back together?

Kari: I think that SJP needs to find herself a catchier nickname, because “ESPN Girl” just isn’t cutting it. She needs to sell her story to Lifetime and make copious amounts of money off of internet rubbernecking. Just kidding. To be honest, she either needs to separate herself from this as much as possible or work with these various websites that have been writing about her, and try to redeem herself. She’s cute, funny, well spoken and young – she has all of the necessary components to win everyone over.

me: Well, she seems to have used just those powers for evil so far You were around her age when you got in trouble, what do you think was going through her mind? Do you think she viewed her schemes as a time bomb that would go off, or do you think she felt like they would carry through?

Kari: She needs to convert that energy into positivity. Sh*t, I sound like a New Age guru who spells magic with a k, but it really is about showcasing your redemption – even if it is less than legitimate.

me: What are some ways she could do this? Like use her infamy to help the people she’s wronged (and stolen Facebook and Twitter accounts from) to regain footing and more followers?

Kari: She obviously got caught up in it, regardless of if she was the evil mastermind or not. Either way, she got in over her head.

me: What was the first thing that jumped out to you when reading the story?

Kari: I think that there is probably a true psychological disorder associated with all of her actions; so as far as if she thought she’d come out on top or not, I’m not sure if it mattered. In my case, I never thought about the real consequences. I just went with it and kept going.

me: Do you think she had this planned from the start, or it just got bigger and bigger, despite her, and she went along with it?

Kari: The latter, almost definitely. That email she sent to her friend, talking about how shocked she was that ESPN had reached out to her, I’m sure she never saw that coming. I’m also sure that she INSTANTLY saw how she could use that to her advantage.

me: like, you think she had this big gig, and the first thought was how to parlay this into cash/scams?

Kari: Not necessarily how to parlay it into scams, but I think that as soon as she realized what was happening, she acted as any business man – how can I benefit from this the most?

me: The strangest thing in the whole story to me is her relationship with this Nilesh guy. It’s almost like she’s the cute female frontwoman, and he’s the guy pulling all the strings… what do you make of their relationship?

Kari: I don’t know if there is enough substantiated evidence for me to say whether or not he was the brains, however, if she is as good of a con man as everyone seems to think she is, that could easily be a facade. People underestimate pathological liars. Not that I’m diagnosing her.

me: Of course not!

Kari: People tend to think that if they were being victimized, oh, they’d be able to see right through it… She could have the media wrapped around her finger right now, who knows.

me: Also, she (or whoever was writing under her name) seems to have been a pretty decent writer. Since ESPN brought her/he on board after all…

Kari: I doubt that there’s any masterful plan behind how this is all being revealed to us, but you never know. That was the most surprising thing!

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Brilliant! I found this most amusing and insightful. A new breed of internet criminals brewing up schemes. I think that this wont be the last of the Sarah J. Philips’s we will see. Also, getting Kari’s take on things, nice touch.

So as long as you’re young, white/asian and female you can pretty much be a dirtbag and people will excuse you. You’ll even make “friends” in the industries you infiltrated while being an absolute lying-arsed fraud.